Sheet guard and setter for platen printing-presses



(No Model.)

E. L. MEGILL, I SHEET GUARD AND 'SETTER FOR PLATEN PRINTING PRESSES.

No. 596,214. Patented Dec. 28, 1897 Fl G-Il. FIE-12.,

WITNESSES: 2 v 1 INVENTOR zww ZW" w M031 @WX ily and firmly attached to the platen of any printing-press whatever may be its style or trate an embodiment of the invention, Figure 1 is a plan or face view of a part of the platen ATEENT FFICE.

EDWARD L. MEGILL, or BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

SHEET GUARD-AND SETTER FO R PLATEN PRINTING-PRESSES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 596,214, dated December 28, 1897. Application filed April 9, 1897. Serial No. 631,377. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD L. MEGILL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sheet Guides and Setters for Platen Printing-Presses, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the class of lateral feed-guides which set the sheet up to the register line or point through the medium of amovable gage or gage-head operated by some part of the press.

- The object of the invention is, broadly speaking, to overcome defects in register due to themi splacing of a sheet in feeding it by hand and thus to permit of great speed and accuracy infeeding, andalso to provide a guide and setter which shall be inexpensive, convenient to use, and capable of being readsize.

This guide will usually be operated by the gripper on the press and'is in itself a gripper or auxiliary gripper, as well as a sheet setter and guide. 'Itis exceedingly thin when compressed under the gripper, and it moves, adjusts, and sets'the sheet by a movement over the platen at right angles'to the movement ofthe gripper and platen of the press.

In the accompanying drawings,which illusof a printing-press, showing the improved guide and setter compressed under the gripp'er of the press. Fig. 2 is a plan of the guide, shown as attached to the tympan-sheet or platen-paper in its normal position. Fig. 3 is a perspective View of the guide detached. Fig. 4 isa plan of the fixed base or base-plate of the guide. Fig.5 includes a plan and front end view of the sliding gage mounted on the base. Fig. 6 is a side View of the base, the bow-spring,'and the depressor. Fig. 7 is a fragmentary plan View of the arched or toggle spring.

Referring to Fig. 1, X is an ordinary platen of a printing-press, and Y an ordinary gripper thereon. The view shows only a part of the platen and only one of the two grippers usually employed. On the platen is strained the usual tympan-sheet 0c, and in it is shown as set a common form of gage-pin y to support the lower edge of the sheet 2 which is to receivethe impression. All of the above features are or may be of the ordinary form used on printing-presses.

In Fig. 1, A represents, as a whole, the improved sheet guide and setter, which will be described minutely with reference to the other figures of the drawings. It may be said, preliminarily, that this guideA is here shown as a side guide; that it is composed of very thin metal, so that when the gripper Y compresses it the latter will not be elevated appreciably; that the pressure of the gripper upon it causes the sliding gage to move up to the gaging point or line, and that when this pressure is relieved the said gage is drawn back automatically by a bow-spring, which forms an important element of the feed-guide.

l is the base or base-plate of the guide. As here shown this base is made of thin sheet metal, preferably steel, and has formed on it a securing-pin 2, which projects to the rear, and a depressible spring-finger 3, which projects to the front and curves upward normally. Fig. 4 shows this base-plate in plan detached.

Mounted to slide on the base 1 to a limited extent is the gage 4. (Seen detached in plan and in front end elevation in Fig. 5.) This gage is also made of very thin sheet metal, preferably steel, andit has at its rear end a guide-tongue 5, which passes through and .plays in a keeper-guide 6, struck up from the base-plate 1. Near its front end it has a guide-slot 7, through which passes the curved spring-finger 3 on the base. The movements of the gage are guided by this finger 3 and the keeper 6. On its front end the gage 4 has lateral extensions which give it a T shape. The longer lateral branch is bent back upon itself and curved upward to form a depressible gage-head 8 for the sheet 2. Opposite to this branch is another, 9, the purpose of which will be hereinafter explained. Back of the gage-head 8 is a branch 10, which is curved upward and has in it a slot 11, which extends transversely of the gage. This slot is designed to receive one of the lateral branches on the free end of the bow-spring 12. This spring 12 will be, by preference, of

very thin sheet-brass bent to the curved or how form seen in Figs. 3 and 6, and secured, with its convex side uppermost, to the rear end of the base-plate 1. To effect this, the heel or butt of the spring is bent back under itself and secured to the base-plate, as shown.

Fixed to the heel of the bow-spring 12 and extending upward and forward obliquely over the spring is a piece 13, of thin sheet metal, somewhat stiffer than the bow-spring, which piece 13 is herein called the depressor.

Fig. 7 shows the spring 12 in plan as it appears when flattened down. It has a broad or T form at its front or free end and one of its lateral branches (la in Fig. 7) engages the slot 11 in the gage 4.

It will be noted that when pressure is applied on the depressor 13 the bow-spring under the latter will be depressed flat and straightened, which causes its front end to move the sliding gage forward by pressure of the broad end of the spring 12 on the front margin of the opening formed by the slot 11 in the curved branch 10, and when this pres sure is removed the spring 12, by its resiliency, recovers its arched form, causing the lateral branch 14 thereon, by en gagem cut with the said slot 11, to draw back or retract the sliding gage.

The guide A, constructed as described, is secured in posit-ion on the platen by inserting the pin 2 in the tympan-sheet cc in such position that the gage-head 8 shall be coincident with the gaging point or line to in Fig. 2 when the bow-spring 12 is depressed or flattened to its fullest extent. When a sheet 2' is fed in printing, it may be placed up to the gage head 8, but when the gripper Y comes to press upon the guide'A the gage 4 will move forward and carry the sheet across the platen until the edge of the sheet coincides with the line w. ,At this moment the end of the depressor 13 will be down upon the sheet a and will girp it securely.

The gripper Y flattens down all of the upwardly-curved parts of the guidesuch as the finger 3, the gage-head 8, and the slotted branch 10; but when the pressure is relieved these parts all assume their proper curvature again by their own resiliency.

In order to prevent the sheet 2 from slipping under the end of the sliding gage 4 in feeding, the latter is provided, by preference, with the lateral branch 9, which may be passed under the tympan-sheet 0a through a slit therein, as seen in Fig. 2, so that it may play or move under said sheet during the movements of the gage.

The above description relates to the guide constructed in the preferred form, as herein illustrated; but it will be obvious that the construction may be varied to some extent without departing materially from the invention. For example, the base 1 and bowspring 12 are really one piece, the only object in making them as described being to employ brass for the spring and steel for the base. They might, however, be actually integral and be of brass, steel, or other suitable metal. The pin 2 is here shown merely to illustrate one of the best-known means for securing the base 1 to the tympan-sheet or platen; but other means may be employed for securing the base thereto.

This guide, as above described, constitutes an automatic device for setting or adjusting the sheet fed to the press and adapted to be operated by compression at the moment of making the impression, the movement of the platen effecting said compression, either throughagripperYorother means. As grippers are almost universally used on these presses, it is convenient to utilize them as herein shown. However, the furniture about the type in the form may be relied on to compress the guide when a gripper is not used; but for such work the depressor 13 should be extended and bent into the form of a curved spring, as indicated by dotted lines at 13 in Fig. 6. If the guides are used at the bottom of the sheet, they may be compressed by the furniture, as stated above, or by a lateral finger on a grippersuch as those shown in my Patent No. 448,753, of March 24, 1891, for example.

While the arm or depressor 13 is important and even necessary under some circumstances, still if the gripper Y be wide enough to cover the crown of the toggle-spring 12 good results may be attained without the arm 13. The toggle-spring forms in itself an operative means or mechanism projecting upwardly from the platen and connected operatively with the movable gage for moving said gage in both directionsthat is, up to the register-line when said projecting part is depressed by the chase, furniture, or other stationary part of the printing-press and back again when such pressure is removed. It will be noted that the direction of the motion is changed. The depressed part moves toward and from the platen, while the gage moves in a plane parallel with the surface of the platen.

Having thus described my invention, I claim 1. An automatic sheet guide and setter adapted to be secured to the tympan-sheet, said guide and setter having a gage adapted to be moved up to the register-line and back therefrom, and means, projecting upwardly from the platen, connected operatively with said gage and adapted for moving the gage up to the register-line when depressed by the closing of the platen in printing and retracting it when the pressure is removed, substantially as set forth.

2. An automatic sheet guide and setter having a base adapted to be secured to the tympan-sheet, a gage adapted to be moved up to the register-line and back therefrom, and a spring device connected operatively with said gage, said spring device projecting up from the platen and adapted to be depressed when the platen closes, whereby the gage is actuated through the medium of said spring device, substantially as set forth.

3. A sheet guide and setter having a base adapted to be secured to the platen, a sliding gage for setting the sheet to the registermark, and an arched or bow spring, connected at one end to the fixed base and at the other end to said gage, whereby compression of the said spring serves to move the gage to the register-line when the impression is eifected, and to retract said gage by its own resiliency when the pressure is removed from said spring.

4. A sheet guide and setter adapted to be operated by compression upon it at the time the impression is made, said guide comprising a base adapted to be secured to the platen, a sliding gage mounted in guides on said base and provided with a gage-head, a bow-spring mounted on the base and coupled at its free end to the gage, whereby compression of said spring moves the gage over the tympan-sheet, and a depressor secured to and arranged above said bow-spring to receive the pressure.

5. A sheet guide and setter for a platenpress, comprising a base 1, provided with means for securing it to the platen, with a curved, depressible spring-tongue 3, and with a guide 6 for the sliding gage, the said sliding gage, having an upwardlycurved, depressible gage-head 8, a slot to engage the tongue 3, and a slot 11, the bow-spring 12, connected at its rear end to the base and coupled at its front end to the sliding gage through the medium of the slot 11, and a depressor 13, connected with and arranged above said bow-spring.

6. In a sheet guide and setter for platenpresses, the combination with abase adapted to be secured to the platen, and a bow-spring 12 on said base, of a sliding gage mounted on said base and coupled to the said bow-spring as set forth, whereby the compression of the spring moves the gage over the platen, said sliding gage having a gage-head 8, and a lateral branch 9, adapted to project under the tympan-sheet and play along a slot therein, as set forth.

7. A sheet guide and setter for a platenpress, comprising a base adapted to be secured to the platen, a sliding gage mounted on said base, a depressor or arm, and elastic means between said arm and gage, whereby vdownward pressure on the arm moves the gage over the platen and the spring retracts said gage when the pressure is removed.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EDVARD L. MEGILL. 

